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Based on several research studies, doctors and experts have noted that using the "watch-and-wait" approach in treating prostate cancer is a very safe and effective method. In a new study, however, researchers discovered that surgery could be the better option, especially for young cancer patients.

"There has been considerable controversy in the United States about PSA [prostate specific antigen] screening for prostate cancer and treatment of prostate cancer," Dr. Jim Hu, director of robotic and minimally invasive surgery in the urology department of the University of California, Los Angeles, said.

For this study, the team of researchers from Harvard and Sweden's Uppsala University Hospital examined the medical data on nearly 700 men diagnosed with early prostate cancer. The data came from a large prostate cancer study conducted in the Scandinavian countries Sweden and Finland, and Iceland. The men were all under 75-years-old and were expected to still be alive in at least 10 years. The researchers tracked their progress for up to 23 years through to 2012.

The patients had been randomly selected to either undergo surgery, known as radical prostatectomy, or take the watch-and-wait approach. The researchers discovered that 58 percent of the patients in the surgery group had died during the study. In the other group, that rate was even higher at 71 percent. The researchers found that 18 percent of the deaths in the surgery group and 28 percent in the watch-and-wait groups were caused by the cancer. The researchers also found that on average, the patients in the surgery group had a longer life expectancy with fewer complications. The surgery group also had a lower risk of cancer spreading.

The researchers cautioned that in their study, they did not use the PSA test to diagnose the case. The diagnoses took place from 1989 to 1999 when using a manual exam was the primary method of detecting cancer. This method affects when the cancers were detected, which could factor into people's survival rates.

"We know PSA screening advances a man's diagnosis by about five to 10 years," study co-author Jennifer Rider, an assistant professor from the Harvard School of Public Health department of epidemiology, said according to Philly. "So a man today would have the disease diagnosed earlier in his life than in our study."

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.